There are a couple of things that I (and my wife) would say that I am addicted to when it comes to sports. These are things that go beyond simply watching games and ESPN and the sports page and things like that. Now I agree that these are all things that I do keep up with on a very regular basis, there are things actually beyond those. Call them extracurricular addictions if you will.
The first of these would be fantasy football. I started playing this the football season right after I got married and have been playing ever since. It is one of those things that has evolved over time too. It started with just a single league and an automatic draft. Over the years it has morphed into multiple leagues with friends as well as a couple of public leagues with random people. I have gone from auto-pick drafts to live drafts. The one that I haven't tried yet is the auction style, but we will see what happens with that as the years progress. This year I'm even doing a salary cap league.
I have done fantasy basketball as well. I have done both head-to-head leagues as well as rotisserie style leagues. I check each day to set my rosters and make sure that I have players who I feel are going to be best for my chances of winning. I have done baseball and hockey (once) and even one time there was a college basketball fantasy league. I once tried fantasy golf even. I have not done NASCAR, but who knows. I even did an XFL fantasy league the year that it was in existence.
There is also fantasy pick 'em games that I do. You pick the winners of the games each week and hope for the highest total of right picks. There is college pick 'em where you pick the top 25's games each week and work the spread. There is survival football as well where you pick one NFL team each week to win and hope that they do so you can move on to the next week. And of course there is the NCAA Bracket Challenge for college basketball each year. All of these are things that I have done now on a regular basis.
All of these have changed the way that I watch sports. No longer do I just root for a single team to do well and beat someone else. Oh no. No I now root for a team (the Cowboys and Spurs respectively) but I now find myself cheering on players from teams that I would never have cheered for before...all because they are on the starting roster of one of my fantasy teams. There is no longer Cowboy or 49er, Spur or Mav Ranger or Yankee, but rather they are all one on roster.
And now there is one more addiction that I have found. ESPN has a game called The Streak. Each day they give you a list of sporting events going on and you pick a winner. You can only make one pick at a time, but after your event is done, you can pick again if there are more on that same day. They don't just give you straight games either. No no, they add things in there like: Which side will record the higher total? Alabama touchdowns scored (against Mississippi State) or Kentucky winning margin (vs. Vanderbilt). Or How many total points will be scored in a game and then you point totals to choose from like 42 or less vs. 43 or more. And it's done with golf, and NASCAR and UFC and basketball and everything else where there is some kind of match up taking place. They even had one for the election. The goal is to build a winning streak. If you win 25 in a row by December 31, 2008 you are entered for a chance at a million dollars. If you have the most total wins for the month, you win $2500. It is crazy, it is addictive, but man is it fun to do. Peace and Love y'all.
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